By Thomas Bernhard
Translated by Meredith Oakes and Andrea Tierney
Directors Annie Castledine and Annabel Arden
Associate Director Delyth Jones
Assistant Director Tarek Iskander
Designer Iona McLeish
Design Assistant Lucy Sierra
Lighting Designer Ben Payne
Sound Designer Andrew Pontzen
Cast: Hannah Boyde, Paul Brightwell, Daniel Curshen, Andrew Hawkins, Caroline Horton, Petra Markham, Barbara Marten, Jane Maud, Clive Mendus, Holly Strickland
“I’ve never heard Bernhard’s distinctive disdain for his own country as loud and clear as it is in the translation of Andrea Tierney and Meredith Oakes.” What’s on Stage ★★★★
“Essential viewing for anyone wanting to see beyond the boundaries of our own theatrical traditions.” MusicOMH
“Deftly translated by Meredith Oakes and Andrea Tierney, the play is given absolutely top-rate direction by Annie Castledine and Annabel Arden, on a crisp cavernous set by Iona McLeish.”
Times ★★★★
“Thomas Bernhard’s last play is full of frustration and anger” The Stage
“absolutely everything is decided by party politics here you simply can’t be narrow-minded enough if you want to get to the highest positions!”
Austria, 1988. For the Schuster family – intellectual, Jewish, Viennese to the core – the country remains as uninhabitable as it was when they fled in 1938. Forty years on from World War II, irrational hatred, neurosis and decadence still reign.
Bernhard explores the shared isolation of people who have lost their bearings along with most of their illusions. Condemned in his homeland when it was first released, the play delves deep into Austria’s historic alliance, exposing the right-wing sensibilities of some of the country’s most prominent citizens.
Heldenplatz is the last play from one of the most individual, innovatory and challenging voices from contemporary post-War Europe. This rare opportunity to see Bernhard’s work in Britain is created by legendary theatre directors Annie Castledine and Annabel Arden, with a leading cast of familiar faces from stage and screen.
“the foremost craftsman of German prose after Kafka and Musil.”
George Steiner on Thomas Bernhard
